Rectification by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports concerning the Resolution of the ERASMUS exchange scholarship (BOE-A-2013-11320)
Erasmus Student Network Spain (ESN Spain) welcomes the rectification of the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports concerning the Erasmus grants. The Government had recently announced that the Erasmus exchange scholarships would be restricted from this academic year 2013/2014 on to only those students who have been also beneficiaries of the so-called general Government scholarship during the previous year. However, the Minister has rectified this measure and confirmed that his department will launch a special call for the current Erasmus students so that they can apply to obtain the Government’s economic support.
The Government’s rectification is a relief for ESN Spain as well as for current Spanish Erasmus students who had not been informed of this measure before the beginning of the academic year or before their period abroad. ESN Spain thus looks forward to the release of this new ministerial call, hoping it will contribute without further obstacles to provide the Erasmus students with the economic support by the Ministry of Education to complete the scholarship amount expected by the students.
ESN Spain wishes to reaffirm its concern for the future of the Erasmus exchange program and the participation of Spanish students. ESN Spain strongly advocates for mobility programs within the European Union which enhance the European identity, foster personal self-development and contribute to the employability of the Spanish youth. Today, students with exchange experience consider themselves more confident to work abroad, more capable of searching for jobs in languages other than their mother tongue or English, and appreciate working in an international environment and the possibility to work independently more than their non-mobile peers.
Thus, although congratulating the rectification by the Ministry regarding Erasmus students this year 2013/2014, ESN Spain would like to once again stress its discrepancy with the Government’s policy change in the distribution of the Erasmus exchange scholarship in the long term. A decrease in the number of students benefiting from the State’s grant will not only damage the quality of the students’ period abroad but it also affects the employability and competitiveness of Spanish youth.
Collection of signatures for the maintenance of the Erasmus scholarship: http://goo.gl/44nJmk
[1]ESNSurvey 2011: Exchange, employment and added value
[2]ESNSurvey 2013: “Creating ideas, opportunities and identities
